One of the things we were highly recommended to do while in Oxford was to take in an Evensong Service at one of the colleges, especially Christ Church College. So Beth and I made our way to Christ Church College where we were greeted by a porter, who when we told him we were there for the service, pointed us through the quadrangle to the two arches which led to the chapel on the far side (see the picture). A quadrangle is the inner space, a large courtyard of sorts, that many of these colleges have. We made our way through the well kept green space, entered the appropriate doors where we tried to sit in the closest available seat (assuming we would be at the back). An usher told us we couldn’t sit there, that space was for the choir, and so we were ushered all the way down the center aisle to a place where it was appropriate for us to sit. The seating arrangement threw us a little, as we were directly facing other folks across the centre aisle in what I assumed was the chancel (I should have brushed up on my cathedral floor plans before I came over!)We soon discovered that this was not an Evensong service, but rather a Sung Eucharist. We weren’t exactly sure what we were in for, but we weren’t about to walk down the centre aisle again to leave. Soon the choir and worship leaders processed in. The Christ Church Cathedral Choir (a traditional boys and men’s voices choral group) did indeed sit in the seats we had recently vacated. The Dean of the Cathedral and other ministers were seated up at the end we were at. We were welcomed, told which book would be used and invited to receive communion if this was something we did in our own tradition. With that the service began.
A Sung Eucharist is basically a standard communion service, but with many of the liturgical parts sung by the choir rather than spoken or sung by the congregation. The congregational booklet had an English translation of any music sung in Latin, so that was helpful. As a whole the service was beautiful and easy to follow. The choir were very skilled, in spite of some of the members being quite young. I’m not sure how young the youngest singer would have actually been, but I thought not more than 7 or 8.
When it came time for the distribution of the elements Beth and I were a little worried because we were going to be some of the very first people to commune, and we didn’t know how this would take place (would it be common cup, or intinction, do we kneel or stand, do we leave as soon as receiving the elements, or wait for a blessing?) Well it was fortunately fairly straight-forward (common cup done continuously kneeling at the rail) so we survived that without making some embarrassing blunder (like sitting in the wrong place).
After the service was over we both agreed that it was a good thing that we squeezed that worship experience into our day, and we made plans to attend the Evensong the next day (we found a schedule and thus knew the following day would indeed be an Evensong service). Both the wonderful choral singing, and the impressive space (with its reverberant sound) made this a special experience, one we were happy to repeat.
We headed back to our hotel room to relax for a little bit before we headed over to the Sheldonian Theatre for a concert that evening. I mentioned how perfectly located our hotel was, well the Sheldonian was only a block away! The concert we were attending this evening was unplanned. While wandering around Oxford in the afternoon I came across a poster advertising “The World Premiere of Solstice Suite for Trumpet, Voice and Jazz Orchestra with the Oxford University Big Band featuring Mark Armstrong (composer/trumpet)”. Then we came across a young man handing out hand bills about the concert. I asked him if he was one of the musicians (I had a hunch) and sure enough he played trombone in the group. He assured me we would love the concert, so I thought we’d consider it and see how we felt in the evening. We felt up to going (Beth was gracious here) and we bought our tickets and went to be seated.
This group is apparently the first jazz group to ever play in the Sheldonian Theatre (remember this is the building Christopher Wren designed, the building Handel played in, where convocations and other special ceremonies have taken place for centuries). The program began with some shorter original pieces or arrangements of standards by Mark Armstrong (the guest performer with the band and an alumnus of Oxford University). The first number blew me away with the tightness of playing and control of dynamics. It was apparent that even those these were University students, we were listening to the best of the best, under a skilled director. After one song I knew I was going to enjoy the show!
The first half ended with a three part composition entitled Oxford Suite with the movements named “I - Isolation, II - Meditation, III - Determination”. This suite was composed by Mark Armstrong while a student at Oxford and featured him on flugelhorn and trumpet. Some beautiful, complex, dynamic music well performed by everyone. I was impressed that Mr. Armstrong composed this while a student, it showed a lot of maturity and experience. By the way, Mark was inspired by the composing and arranging of a Canadian trumpet player Kenny Wheeler (who has recorded many albums on ECM records). I could detect a Wheeler influence in the composition and looked forward to the major work premiering after the intermission.
The Solstice Suite was in four movements with some nice contrasts in tone, colour, tempo and dynamics. This group had a flute player which was a nice colour used throughout, though when the brass kicked in it was really just a subtle spice at that point. The fellow I talked to on the street earlier in the day had some excellent improvised trombone solos, as did all the soloists. The drummer was fun to watch and was very creative and nuanced, even as he was rhythmically solid. In the end it was an excellent concert, well worth the time and money spent. Who knows, maybe we saw some future jazz stars playing that night, though I wondered if Handel was rolling over in his grave. <I also enjoyed the concert - just found myself wishing for a little more leg room! editor>
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